Two steps back for Chelsea, but steps that were needed – Talk Chelsea

It’s time to ‘trust the process’ and back a new manager once again. Here we go again.

We’ve been here far too many times in recent seasons, but we will once again be urged to ‘give the new manager time’ to implement his own system and bond with the players. It’s just exhausting now.

This was one of the reasons I had refrained from wanting Graham Potter sacked, because I hate everything that then comes next. The search for a new manager, not being able to please everyone with whoever takes the reigns, a fanbase split once again before the new manager even takes charge, those who didn’t want said manager already on their back when they lose a game and agendas starting up, and then the inevitable suffering whilst we wait for the manager to get his ideas across.

But until then, we have to watch Chelsea with a guy in charge who has never been a manager before. Trust the process….. I’m tired.

Look, Potter HAD to go, I was forced to admit that after the Aston Villa defeat. It’s the right decision, and one I’ve applauded. And although I am going to get fully involved in the process of finding and hiring a new manager, researching all about him and having some hope instilled in me once again, I feel rather gloomy about it all right now; it’s all a bit of a mess.

We’ve spent ridiculous amounts of money in the last two windows and look nowhere even close to a rebuild being complete yet. We still have a bloated squad with some unhappy players who do not want to be here. What sort of setup is that for a new manager to walk in to despite it being an appealing job overall? We’ve signed players who yes, could well become world class, but they are super raw right now. We’ve got inconsistent players who cannot finish their dinner in attack, and nobody can pick Chelsea’s best Xl right now.

Where is the direction? Sacking Potter feels like we are taking two steps back again, but yes, steps we HAD to take and were forced to take.

I am dreading hearing the first words from our next manager, purely because if they once again tell us that all players have a clean slate under him, I will completely lose it. That would push us backwards even more. That scares me. We need to gut this squad and we need a cut-throat manager to do so. We need a brave and bold manager to come in, make big decisions, trust those decisions and stick with them.

This is a project; we cannot win the league, Champions League qualification is near impossible, so let’s make some ‘project’ decisions such as investing time in one or two of these top young players we have signed or who are already in our academy, and developing players. Players need to play football in order to develop. I’m going to watch the U21s tonight and I can already tell you that there will be one or two players on show who should be in our first team right now.

I don’t want to see Bruno Salter, and then any new manager coming in, putting their trust and faith in the ‘experienced’ players. Potter tried that, and got sacked. That should be a big enough alert for anyone.

We have to all strap ourselves in now, get ready for another up and down manager search with us all having completely different opinions on who we want in and getting angry with certain links and rumours. Then we have to go through the whole first press conference, first training session buzz, over hyping, over excitement, and a whole bunch of mis-sold hope yet again. I’m not sure that I’m ready for this.

But that is where we are. Maybe it’s just another hurdle in the grand scheme of the project. Maybe it will turn out to be a massive blessing in disguise and we go on to hire our next Jose Mourinho and have our next most successful spell as a club ever. Maybe my optimism will return once again.

My hope is that the owners are fully passionate, they are with us in this, they are fans of Chelsea, and they are fully ambitious. They have already shown that. But my bigger hope is in the guys who are leading this now, the footballing guys, the experts brought in by the club for these specific big decisions. Potter was a mistake, but these guys were not at the club then. I cannot see them making the wrong choice here, and I am putting my trust in them to get this right.